Variations in cable text

Wikileaks cables vary over time. In some releases some details are redacted. In some releases some cables are removed entirely.

An interesting case is that of 10STATE17263, a cable that disappeared one hour after release, and returned three days later with almost all text removed. Several people published recovered copies of the earlier version, and after three more days the original cable came back.

Temporary redaction

There are many cases of initially redacted cables, where a less redacted version was given later. And of initially unredacted cables that were redacted afterwards but then restored again. Some examples.

2005-07-07	05SOFIA1207	BULGARIAN ORGANIZED CRIME Redact 70% of the text, removing almost all details about Bulgarian organized crime.
2006-01-20	06BERN141	SWISS COUNTERTERRORISM OVERVIEW Redact the 'unimpressive results' of Swiss prosecutors against suspected Al-Qaeda operatives
2007-01-26	07PARIS322	C/T JUDGE ON FRANCE, RWANDA, PAKISTAN, AND HIS POLITICAL FUTURE Redact opinions of France's chief counterterrorism judge
2007-05-25	07MADRID1021	SCENESETTER FOR SECRETARY RICE'S JUNE 1 VISIT TO MADRID Redact discussion on U.S.-Spain relations
2009-03-09	09TRIPOLI208	LIBYA'S SUCCESSION MUDDLED AS THE AL-QADHAFI CHILDREN CONDUCT INTERNECINE WARFARE Heavily redact stories about al-Qadhafi's children
2009-07-07	09SOFIA363	BULGARIA: BELENE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT: MORE TROUBLES Redacted concerns about safety
2009-12-14	09BAGHDAD3195	IRAN/IRAQ: THE VIEW FROM NAJAF Redact the names of various people
2010-01-25	10ASTANA72	KAZAKHSTAN: MONEY AND POWER Accusations of corruption redacted
2010-02-12	10MOSCOW317	THE LUZKHOV DILEMMA Allegations of criminal connections redacted

Final redaction

And there are cases where the most redacted version is the version in the current release. Some of these may be redacted for good reason, and only one or a few names were removed. We don't mention them. Below cases where more than just a name disappeared.

2008-07-09	08OTTAWA918	COUNSELOR, CSIS DIRECTOR DISCUSS CT THREATS, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, IRAN Redact CSIS legal problems with "vigorously harassing" Hezbollah members in Canada
2008-10-23	08ASHGABAT1399	EXPAT SOURCES SAY THAT ITERA GAVE TURKMENISTAN A YACHT WORTH 60 MILLION EURO Redact story of expat
2009-02-11	09ANKARA226	ELDERLY AMERICAN SMUGGLED OUT OF IRAN Details on the route redacted
2009-09-29	09TRIPOLI771	A GLIMPSE INTO LIBYAN LEADER QADHAFI'S ECCENTRICITIES Qadhafi's fear of heights and Ukrainian nurse
2009-12-06	09ALGIERS1077	BOUTEFLIKA TO WARD: WE WANT A STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP Political discussion removed -- painfully truthful
2009-12-18	09ASHGABAT1633	BERDIMUHAMEDOV AND TURKMENISTAN'S RULING FAMILY Gossip on Berdimuhamedov's second oldest sister
2010-02-22	10SEOUL272	VFM CHUN YOUNG-WOO ON SINO-NORTH KOREAN RELATIONS Keep secret who is China's "Most Incompetent" official

External information

For 09BEIJING1336, the NYT reveals that `Politburo Standing Committee member (name redacted)' actually is Li Changchun.

"Controversial"

Eskinder Nega, a journalist in Ethiopia, cricised the redactions made in 09ADDISABABA1318 as disappointing, controversial and excessive.

“While the stated rationale for involving the State Department before posting of the leaked cables is acceptable, the State Department is obviously—and understandably—demanding excisions that could not reasonably fall within the confines of the protection of its sources; at least in regard to a June 2009 cable from Ethiopia.”

“I think the state department is trying to protect the security chief from a major embarrassment, or even scandal. The role of security, which is supposed to be neutral, in stifling domestic dissent is controversial and troublesome.

Of course, today we have the full cable.

Journalist flees the country

On the other side, CPJ reports that the Ethiopian journalist Argaw Ashine had to 'flee' the country after Wikileaks published an unredacted copy of 09ADDISABABA2535.

Original redaction

The cables.csv file that contains all cables already seems to have redactions, or at least strings XXX.

For example, 04THEHAGUE781 says

1. Country Clearance is granted for xxx for travel to The Netherlands XXX.

However, these occurrences seem mostly harmless. Perhaps cables are cleaned before being inserted in SIPRNET. For example private telephone numbers (08AMMAN285)

4. (SBU) Hotel reservations have been made at Amman HOTEL NAME HERE, phone 962-6-xxx-xxxx and fax 962-6-xxx-xxxx.

or date-of-birth (09BAGHDAD699)

7. (SBU) The Camp Ashraf AmCits are as follows (detailed information exists in ACS ): Elham Kiamanesh, DOB XXXXXX ...

Maybe in many such cases the XXX is just a variable or an unknown, and has never been explicit. For example (05DHAKA3815)

we require ... a statement ... that there is no Bangladesh mission in country XXX.

and (05SANSALVADOR3490)

In 2005, approximately US$XXX billion in remittances was likely sent to El Salvador

Of course XXX can also be a classification label, or a roman numeral. Or modesty can forbid explicit mention (09BUDAPEST429)

She suggested that the individual go play with his Jewish circumcised XXXX (male anatomy) rather than wasting time trying to besmirch her.